Chapter 101 Bugs

I found Tama standing in the clearing, facing me. All around her were various kitsunes, some were in their fox form, others in human form, the unifying factor though was that they were all unconscious having been beaten black and blue by Tama.

"There you are, where were you?"

"I fell asleep…" I sheepishly say, rubbing the back of my neck.

Walking towards me Tama brings her nose to my neck and takes a sniff.

"Doesn't seem like you just fell asleep, Darwin~" My name was said with extra syllables, Tama emphasizing my name. Her pouty lips almost touching mine as she continued on.

"I can smell it you know, no amount of washing is going to wash of that scent,

My- Darwin."

Blushing a bit I looked away, it's one thing to have been caught but to have Tama bring it up in such a seductive tone was embarrassing.

Grumble

I was broken out of my state by the growl of Aoif's stomach.

"Ah… can you make us some food Aoif, please"

…

I devoured the food in front of me, the hunger from both the exercise last night and all the hunting that I had done before all culminated into the ravenous hunger that I felt now.

Still I kept my table manners as best as I could, not wanting to let Darwin see such a messy scene.

Though by the amused emotions that were flowing off of him I could tell that he had already noticed. I flushed in embarrassment and slowed my eating down.

Every slice of my fork and knife was carefully placed so as to be as elegant as possible.

But the amusement in Darwin's emotions just grew as he saw this.

Swallowing my food I asked Darwin who the cat girl that I had seen was.

"She's the new summon, Astraea, I don't know much about her other than the nature aligned aether drugs her for some reason." Darwin responded.

"It's most likely because Astraea isn't used to such dense aether and because of that her senses have been honed to a fine point."

Tama interjected, telling us her theory on why that was.

"It could be" I absentmindedly said, still focusing on eating.

The thought of what Gabriel and Naomi were up to crossed my mind but it was soon replaced by the fresh plate of food that was placed in front of me.

…

"Are you sure we should do this, we had an agreement with them?" Naomi asked, concern filling her voice.

"You saw her power, and from the clues that she dropped knowingly or unknowingly she seemed to be suborned to Darwin." I explained.

"Yes but we made an agreement with them it would be wrong to just abandon that!"

"There's no need to worry about them, after the bit of training Aoif gave us, they shouldn't be a problem to handle."

"I guess"

With that, silence prevailed, the quiet sounds of the forest overtaking us as we hike over to where Aoif had said to meet.

We weren't idiots, even if we knew that Aoif meant us no harm didn't mean that we weren't going to scout the place that she had told us to meet at.

"Do you smell that?" Naomi asked to the side of me, her nose up as she sniffed around the air.

"No?" I didn't smell anything, well anything that wasn't the normal smells of the forest.

"Weird, it almost smells like… like a- a graveyard."

"A graveyard?"

"I don't know, I'm struggling to find the right word for it, that was the best that I could do." Naomi looked at me, her mouth pouting at something.

"Weird."

With that final word we went silent again, continuing our journey.

…

When we got close to the coordinates, I could feel that something was off. The air felt heavy, it was almost as if you could reach your hands in the air and catch the air in your hands.

It was then that I felt it.

"We need to go, NOW!"

The presence that I felt was not ordinary, it felt even stronger than Aoif was, and if I had sensed whatever that was then it sure as hell could sense us.

"Buff us both, we need to run!" I yelled at Naomi, not caring for the volume for I knew that something was coming.

BANG

BOOM

BANG

BOOM

BANG

BOOM

Behind us I could hear the trees crashing down as whatever was following us gained on us, not caring for the obstacles in its way.

"SHIT!"

I yelled out as I felt the air behind me be displaced, something being thrown at me.

CLANG

Naomi who was following close behind me had reacted in time and blocked whatever had been thrown but the force behind it threw her into me knocking us both down.

Turning myself over so that I could get up I got my first glimpse of what was chasing us. Humanoid in build it towered above us. However those were its only humanoid traits, its red eyes trailed us in unnatural patterns as if it was scanning every part of our body's and the nearby terrain. Instead of skin it had a hard shell covering its whole body in interweaving patterns, looking like a scarab.

BOOM

The sound of it moving broke the sound barrier as it was upon us in mere seconds. By reflex I called upon my aether and created an ice spike that was aimed at where I thought he would appear.

CLANG

All the spike did was slow it down, however that was all I needed. As soon as it was stunned I picked up Naomi from where she lay, still dazed from the force of the attack and ran.

[Gabriel: Help xx/xx/xx]

[Aoif: ? omw]

[Aoif: details?]

[Gabriel: big humanoid bug too strong]

While my attention was diverted to calling help the bug had gained on us, luckily I was able to dodge and weave through its attacks now that I knew where they were coming from, slowly making my way towards the coordinates that I had sent Aoif.